Archive for the ‘Fiat Abarth Zagato’ tag

* Quite a number of factors account for the popularity of the Studebaker Avanti, from its fiberglass body and powerful drivetrain choices to its development history and association with Raymond Loewy to its resurrection and multiple lives following the end of Studebaker auto production. In this 45-minute documentary on the Avanti, we get the entire history, from the background of Studebaker’s early 1960s turmoils through to the latter-day GM F-body-based versions.

* Speaking of the Avanti, King Rose Archives uploaded this introduction for the car from 1963, a 14-minute commercial full of quick cuts, lofty adjectives, and everything Studebaker wanted you to know about the Avanti.

* Bought specifically to run the modern Mille Miglia, Carl Gustav Magnusson’s Fiat-Abarth Zagato double bubble sounds like a little ball of fury. Petrolicious caught up with Magnusson for a look at his car and what makes it so special.

* Finally, a bit of news from this week: The Australians have taken the world record for most cars doing a burnout at once, after 103 cars lined up at Summernats 28 on New Year’s Day in Canberra.

(For those of you tuning in expecting to see the SIA Flashback: After coming to the natural end of that series, we wanted to replace it with a new series showcasing the best of the old car-related videos we’ve been bookmarking for years now. If you have suggestions for videos, please share them, and feel free to send along your feedback on the series as we go along so we can tweak and perfect it – more videos? fewer? longer videos? shorter? Let us know.)

The latest batch of photos from the archive boxes didn’t include too many unrecognizeables, but it did at least include this photo to accompany a classified ad for a 1967 Austin Mini Cooper 1275 S Deluxe that featured dual tanks, wide alloy wheels, a fiberglass front end and reclining Paddy Hopkirk seats. Take $2,750 to Florida (in November 1978) and it’s all yours. Take a six-pack of Coors and he’s all yours, lay-dees.

Like the Cunningham from a few archive boxes ago, we know exactly what this is, but we can’t resist posting the photo. The Grand Junction, Colorado, seller, had no price listed for this Fiat Abarth Zagato coupe – nor did he have a year listed – but explains in the classified how it’s a national concours winner despite the “many extras,” including the black glove leather interior, the Pioneer AM-FM stereo and the CB radio.

The one real oddball we spotted, however, was this 1976 Mustang convertible, “documented the only one made,” the classified reads. It featured air conditioning for some dumb reason and had 11,000 miles on the clock. A dealer in Kansas City, Kansas, listed it, but sans price. I sure would like to see that documentation; the best I could come up with for a Mustang II convertible is a mention of 44 built by Emmess Coachbuilders two years after this one allegedly came from the factory. Show car, perhaps?